Sarah loves her Books

For the past couple of weeks Sarah has been loving her books for more than just something to chew on. I've read to her everyday for a long time now, but it was always a struggle since she was always trying to pull the book away from me so that she could eat it.

Her books have now become some of her favourite things to look at and play with. She loves to turn the pages by herself and has now started pointing at the pictures and textured parts. I have always pointed and tracked the words as I've read (that's what us teachers do), so it has so warmed my heart to see her learning and following along. These are just a few of her books, she has many other favourites around the house. I think that she's just too cute here.

I realized the other day when I was going through our photos that we don't have any pictures of me reading to her. This is because reading time is usually when David is at school so there's no one to take a photo. So yesterday we finally got a few pics. Reading time is also one of my favourite times in the day since that's also our cuddle time. Sarah's a very active little girl, so having her sit on my lap for 10 minutes straight is pretty great!

My pretty little girl.

Play Time

Sarah continues to be so much fun. She loves to giggle, be chased around the house and thrown up in the air. David is always best with the throwing, it still makes me a little nervous. She sure does love it though.

The following video clip shows how she often plays with her activity centre. Perhaps a little too much stimulation, you can see that she doesn't play with one item very long.

Seeking Advice on Eastern Canada

Once David is finished exams we are planning on going on a road trip down through the US to (possibly New York), Boston, up along the Maine caost, through New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and back through Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and back home. We have always wanted to see Eastern Canada and the coast of Maine, so we're both really excited about this trip.

I know it seems a little odd to be planning this trip since we have yet to go on our Caribbean cruise (just 18 days away!). However, I always find that any self guided trip (ie. road trips, backpacking, etc) take a lot of planning if you want to be sure that you see and do all the things that you want. When we backpacked Europe this was so true. I booked all our accomodations, rail, air, etc before we had left Canada and the trip was so smooth and stress free (not to mention arguement free). So I am once again planning this trip in the same way. Nothing beats the peace of mind of always having an idea of where you're going and staying, especially with a little one.

I am wondering if people that have been in any of the places that I mentioned would mind sharing great places that they stayed (clean, reasonably priced, etc). Any info on great drives and attractions would also be wonderful. If it's easier to e-mail me directlly feel free at sharindavid@hotmail.com Thanks so much! I can't think of many people that I know that have been to these places, but you never know. I also took out a bunch of travel books from the library, so they've been a great help already. Yesterday we got Sarah's passport stuff all in order so it feels good to have that done. We didn't even know that she needed one, so it's a good thing that we got it all figured out in time. As I look out the window and see the snow falling and the ground covered, it feels great to know that we'll be in warm weather on sandy beaches in a matter of 18 days. We are blessed indeed!

Happy Chinese New Year!

This year Chinese New Year is today, January 26th. Since we're here in Ontario we won't be going out for dinner with our family back in BC. I dressed Sarah in her red shirt (the lucky colour, not that I believe in luck) and that's about all the celebrating that we're going to do today. Tomorrow David has the afternoon off so we've planned to go for lunch to the Mandarin restaurant to celebrate. I'll try to add some photos to this post tomorrow. In Chinese culture New Year is the big celebration, it takes the place of Christmas and birthdays as the major holiday.

Xin Nian Kuai Le OR Gung Hay Fat Choy

(Happy New Year!)

Loving her Rag Doll

For Christmas, my mom made Sarah and Chloe rag dolls (similar to the one she made me when I was about Sarah's age). Sarah loves her doll! This morning while I was folding laundry in the hallway I watched Sarah crawl into her room, grab her doll and start playing. When she noticed that I had the camera and called her name, this is how she responded. Such a classic Sarah smile, all eyes almost closed and all teeth showing. Hope you like it Oma!

Crib Chewing

Any ideas on how to make a little girl stop sharpening her teeth on her crib? A few days ago I noticed some teeth marks on Sarah's crib and since then it's just been getting worse. Yesterday I caught her in the act of chewing and sharpening her teeth on her crib. I'm not sure when she even does this. I think it's when she first gets up in the morning and from her naps. Who knows how long she's even up before I hear her little sounds in the morning. I usually find her sitting in her crib happily chatting and playing with her talking Pooh bear.

Oh well, at least we bought the crib used and didn't spend much money on it. The two railings have protectors on them, so they're fine. The part that she's chewing at is the end board.

Can't just be quiet

Our little girl just can't seem to sit and be quiet. She's always screeching, talking or making some kind of funny sound. Here's a little example.

My Kitchen

I found this idea on my cousin Sonya's blog and thought it would be a good way to share some info and pics about our kitchen(s). So here's 10 random facts about our kitchen:

1. My kitchen is very small. In fact we only have space for a small square pub style table and 2-3 chairs. Sarah’s high chair is a little off to the side, which isn’t ideal but the way it is. Sure is different than our kitchen in Abbotsford!


This is the kitchen BEFORE:
The following pics are the kitchen AFTER:


2. I love how I can see the Catholic church steeple and cross from our kitchen window. Somewhow it makes doing dishes a little nicer when there's something to look at. I can also hear the church bells a couple of times a day.



3. I keep a meal plan for the week. This is something that I have done off and on through the years but have only now become pretty good at it. When the flyers come out on Thursday and Friday I can see what’s on sale and plan accordingly. We buy groceries on the weekend and the plan goes from Mon to the weekend, it also helps us save money by buying what we need. The plan is always on the fridge so we both know what’s for dinner. I can always switch up the meal days if the need be.

4. I enjoy both cooking and baking, but like baking the most. The worst thing about cooking is deciding what to make, the plan makes that better.

5. I love organization and labels. This is difficult to accomplish in a small kitchen with limited space. My baking shelf is one place where I can count on organization and clear labels.



6. Gone are the days of my lovely stainless steel appliances. Our fridge is small and ugly, oh well at least it’s a neutral colour. So now we are that family with the huge monthly calendar and meal plan on the front of the fridge and photos all along the side.



7. This semester David and I eat dinner together most of the time. The other days he’s in class so I eat alone and he eats leftovers when he comes home. Sarah usually eats just before us and then sits in her highchair munching on cheerios while we eat. This way we’re all together and I can still eat my meal and have a conversation with David. You do what works.

8. I have many cookbooks. I love cookbooks almost as much as the actual cooking. My favourite cookbook is the one with all my compiled recipes from magazines, the internet and friends. I also love my church/ school cookbooks.

9. We only have the fridge freezer. This has also been a big change from our old place. Currently the whole freezer door is filled with labeled bags of cubed baby food. At the moment there’s turkey, chicken, peas, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, rice, plums and peaches.

10. We actually have two kitchens, one up and one down. We only use the upstairs kitchen. Even though the downstairs one is actually nicer I just don't like the idea of cooking and eating in the basement, there's just not enough light for me. We call the downstairs one our nook, so as to avoid confusion. The nook does not have an oven, just our mini fridge. However, it does have a dishwasher that we never use. The eating space is bigger so we have a table and chairs set down there. This is where I tutor, sew and scrapbook.


This is the kitchen BEFORE: (That's not wall paper, it's all sponge painting that need to be sanded and primed)
This is the kitchen AFTER: (yes, I did paint all the cupboards too)

11. If I could change one thing about my kitchen, besides making it bigger, it would be removing the tile on the walls. Changing the cabinets would also be a big improvement, but that’s not going to happen. Now you know plenty of trivial facts about me and my kitchen.

I just had my womens Bible study group at our place this morning. It went really well. I offered to host that way Sarah doesn't have to miss her nap and I don't have to figure out a ride. Hope you're having a good day!

Milk in Bags

One of the first things we noticed when we went grocery shopping here in Ontario is that milk is sold in bags. Ugh.. You can still buy it in 2 L cartons but it's much more expensive. We resisted for the last 5 months since we don't drink lots of milk anyways. But since we seem to be drinking more milk and the price is just so much better we have switched to the bags. This has been especially hard on David. I remember when I was a kid we always got milk in bags, it didn't seem wierd then, but somehow it does now. Watch out BC, bagged milk may be coming your way too!

Many things in Ontario are more environmentally friendly, so I suppose it makes sense that they don't have jugs and fewer cartons. Like I've said in the past, curb side recycling is much better here than in the Lower Mainland. I especially like having compost matter picked up, they even pick up dog poo!

My Heart Melter

I just can't seem to get enough of Sarah's smiles. Lucky for me, she loves to smile! I was organizing photos on the computer this evening when I came across this photo, taken a couple of weeks ago. I love how it shows her upper teeth. I can't believe she's got 4 up and 4 down, makes her look so grown up.

The last few days she has started something new. She'll crawl really fast, stop and then lay down, planting her face into the carpet. Then she'll just lay there for a moment and then get up and start crawling again. It makes me laugh every time.

Life Group

Last night we met our new life group. Having had an incredible experience in a life group for the past three years, we know how valuable and life changing the experience of being in a life gorup can be. We highly recommend it! David was pretty hesitant about the thought of joining a new group. What would the people be like? Would we have similar interests? Would we be able to be friends, not just people who meet once a week? This is where he is often more pesimistic and I'm more optimistic.

Well I am happy to say that we both feel really good about our group. There are three couples that were in the group prior, and one other new couple that joined last night when we did. All of the couples have a child somewhere between 4m-16m and, except for one which is expecting their first in 4 weeks. The other interesting thing about the group is that all but one of the couples have little or no family in the St. Catharines area. We're the only ones 'out of province' but I still thought it was really neat that we all had that aspect of life in common. Everybody in the group seems pretty relaxed and flexible, making us feel welcome right away. It's a great feeling to be in a room of strangers and think to yourself, yep, these are people I think I could be friends with.

We know that this experience will be different than our last life group experience. Different people, different dynamics. But we're excited for the changes ahead and the new relationships that will potentially form. We think that one of the hardest things will be not leading anymore. So we pray for God's wisdom in knowing when to speak up and step in and when to just let things be.

We trust that God's plans for us here are great and want to be used by him in all ways. So we continue to take risks and step into uncomfortable territory. We know that in order for God to use us and in order for us to be blessed by others we need to just put ourselves out there. We have both been amazed at how far we have already come and the numerous ways that we have been blessed by others since we have moved here.

Knowing that we're most likley only going to be here for about three years makes us sometimes question how important it is to make friendships here and feel a part of a community. Three years isn't that long but yet it's long enough to need friendships and community, at least for us. I also want to be intentional about living in the present. It would be easy for me to just talk on the phone each day to friends back in Abby. Actually it wouldn't be that easy since I do get sick of the phone after a little while. I could also have the mindset that it just doesn't matter since we'll be moving eventually anyways. However, right now our home is here. Therefore this is where we need to be a part of a community and build relationships. At least that's how I see it.

On another note, the snow just continues to fall. It's forecasted that we'll get snow almost every day this week, and about 5-15 cm each day. Crazy. So far so good for me and winter, I'm still enjoying it.

Snowblowers

The following photo is my first attempt of a good snowblower shot. This is our neighbour across the road. I have come to the conclusion that the snowblower is the winter equivilent of the ride on lawnmower for men. The guys seem to just love them out here. Being from Abbotsford, I had never even seen someone use one of these before moving here.

Well this morning we had lots more snow...again! So everybody was out clearning their driveways... again. We attempted going to church. We were all dressed up and got a couple minutes down the road when we figured we should turn back. The snow plows hadn't come out yet and the roads were just too full of snow. By the time we stopped at the grocery store around the corner and came home the plows were out. But by that time it was after 10am. We thought about going the second service but then Sarah would have missed her nap and been really unhappy. Can you believe that we're first service people now? Crazy, I know. Oh well, tonight is our first Life Group meeting so we're eager to see what that will be like.

The following photo is of the house right next to our driveway. This is what it looked like after our neighbour, Jerry, had finished snow blowing our driveway. It looks like someone took one of those cans of fake snow to it. It made me laugh.

Cheap Skates and Skating

Cheap skates! Why yes we are and yes they were! The other day we stopped in at Liquidation World to have a look around. I had never been there so I was curious if they had any good deals or not. Well... did I get a deal! Brand new CCM skates for just $6.90 (90% off). I have never owned my own skates and now living in Ontario skates seem to be a must have item. I was thrilled with our find, it was perfect timing!

Yahoo for cheap skates!

This afternoon we went skating on our neighbours backyard rink. Well I did at least, since I'm the only one that has skates. It snowed much of the night and all day today. The temperature finally warmed up to -4 so it was the perfect day for a skate. It's been about -14 all week, so -4 actually felt pretty good.We layered and bundled Sarah up and hit the rink. She had so much clothes on that she could hardly move. It reminded me of that scence from "A Christmas Story." She was as happy as could be.

Keisha had to take part in the action. Here Sarah is with Summer.


Me and Cathy

Time for some hockey

We have been so blessed with such great neighbours! Last night Cathy even brought over leftover turkey dinner when we got home from the Wine Festival. I have so enjoyed spending time with them and having someone to talk to here. God has blessed us indeed and we are truly thankful.

Cheerios

This week we introduced Sarah to Cheerios, she loves them! It's amazing how occupied she can be just picking them up and eating them.

Keisha is also a big fan of Cheerios for Sarah, as if often means Cheerios for her.

Ice Wine Festival

This afternoon we headed out to the Niagara Wine Festival in Jordan (about 20 min away). The festival is taking place for the next two weekends. Since David knows many of the people who were working there we were able to have a few free samples. It was really cold so we weren't there for that long. But it was neat to see what was going on and see all the ice sculptures.

The ice throne was my favourite sculpture.
The bar area and the shelves in the background are all made out of ice!

There were several of these little ice tables set up

I love this idea. They've cracked the bottoms of the bottles off and used them as candle holders. There were lots of these hanging in the trees...so cool!

Niagara Falls...A Winter Wonderland

The other day we headed out to the falls. The snow and ice look amazing!